"Get your ass up."

Hyerim groaned as her duvet was yanked off of her body, courtesy to her roommate, Jihee. Her amazing afternoon nap was rudely interrupted, and she was not happy.

"What time is it...?" Hyerim fumbled around her bedside table for her phone, finally picking it up. She rubbed her eyes blearily and focused on the bright screen, the time finally registering in her brain.

"Shit, 2:21? I have a meeting at 2:30!" Hauling herself up, she scrambled to pick up socks that were littered around the floor beside her bed, pulling her jacket that was discarded on her desk chair around her shoulders. 

"Did you forget to set your alarm again?" Jihee asked, folding her arms like a mother.

"I swear I set it!" the black-haired girl cried, shoving some necessities in her bag. She quickly bid farewell to Jihee, exiting the university dorm complex and quickly made her way over to the main campus.

❆

"Sorry I'm late!" Hyerim apologised profusely, slipping into the club room. Thankfully her members were lenient, waving off the tardy and inviting her over.

After the Neoletter in high school, Hyerim began to develop a liking towards journalism and writing, leading her to choose her current course, and also join what they called the SCC - student committee club. It was comprised up of students who ran the school paper, helped coordinate events and festivals, and listen to student opinions and take them into consideration. 

Currently, they were in the process of coordinating S-Night, an evening festival that had several activities such as performances, food stalls, games and exhibitions. It was happening in two weeks. They had assigned each club with their own separate categories - for example, the music club was in charge of musical performances, the astronomy club had tarot readings and predictions, the robotics club had robots up on display. The SCC was in charge of a tteokbokki stand. Random, but many of the clubs were in charge of running random food and game stalls.

"We were just discussing volunteers and rosters for the night, Hyerim!" One of the cheery seniors, Daemun, beckoned her over. She was handed a sheet of paper with shifts for the night.

"What are you good at, Hyerim?"

"Um, I'm not very good at cooking," Hyerim told them apologetically, feeling useless. One of the other members, Soyoung, patted her kindly on the shoulder.

"That's okay, you can be a waitress! It's easy, all you have to do is write down the orders on the notepad, collect the money and bring the order back to the kitchen area for us to cook. Then bring the food to the person who ordered it."

Hyerim nodded, filling her name on the roster paper and selecting her shift, while the rest of the club talked about organisation stuff for the night.

She tuned out of the meeting, picking at her cuticles, until it was dismissed.

"See you next Wednesday!" Bowing politely at her seniors, Hyerim exited the club room.

❆

Filing into the club room, she sat in a seat, noticing the club president standing up at the front of the room, seemingly about to make an announcement.

"Okay everyone, due to some difficulties with staffing, me and the rest of the SCC board have decided to accept some volunteers to help around with heavy lifting, cooking and cleaning." She stopped to check her phone for the time. "They should be here soon."

Right on cue, there was a knock on the closed door, and the president hurried over to open it. Hyerim's breath hitched in her throat.

A purple-haired figured, wearing a black shirt strolled in along with four other guys.

This has to be some sort of sick joke.

"Please warmly welcome our four new volunteers from the ice hockey teams, Junho, Jaemin, Sangwon and Haechan!"

Hyerim felt the bile rise in her mouth.

Haechan, his hands shoved in his pockets, rocked on his heels slightly, scanning around the room until his eyes fell on her. Hyerim's heart leaped, and she quickly bent her head down, pretending to be busy writing something down.

"We'll assign these volunteers to different teams. Junho and Haechan, you can do heavy lifting. Jaemin, you can do cooking and Sangwon can help with cleaning up."

With that, the four boys dispersed. However, instead of going to wherever he was meant to be going, Haechan came over to the waitressing team.

The girls sat at the table chirped greetings, happy to have such an attractive boy join them. Hyerim kept her head down.

"Hey, Hyerim."

"Hi," she responded back to Haechan, not looking up from the (blank) paper she was staring at.

"Whatcha' writing?"

She heard a chair screech, and looking beside her, she found Haechan's face staring at her piece of paper.

"There's nothing written on that."

Quickly, she covered the paper with her sleeve, sweeping it up with the other notes. "I was trying to brainstorm," she lied, clearing her throat and straightening her back, eyes darting around the room.

"Ah, okay."

He definitely knew she was lying.

The painful meeting dragged on, with the waitressing team figuring out the roster and customer service etiquette. Haechan stayed at the table - something about "not having anything to do".

"You're all free to go now - thank you for all the help!" The president dismissed them, and immediately, Hyerim picked up her already-packed bag and stood up from her seat, before she was stopped by a gentle hand on her lower arm.

"See you on Wednesday, Hyerim!"

❆

Hyerim was debating to call in sick.

She was currently stood at the door of her dorm, with her shoes on, ready to exit. Her outfit was simple - a pair of jeans with sneakers and a university apparel shirt, the "uniform" that they were required to wear.

Her stomach churned at the thought of working a shift with Haechan, though she felt better that their shifts didn't overlap too much, and he would be busy carrying things to and from the storage room to interact with her that much.

That was enough to convince her to leave the dorm, going down to the square where the festival had already started.

It was bustling. Stalls were all properly set up and decorated with banners and advertisements for certain clubs. There was steam rising up from all the delicious hot food being cooked and served. Many of the stalls, including the SCC's, had a marquee set up with some plastic chairs and tables for the students to eat at.

Hyerim hurried over to her stall, where she politely greeted her club members and clocked into her volunteer shift, grabbing an apron and throwing it over herself.

Everything was going okay. There were just enough staff for them to not be overworked and stressed, and everything was managed nicely.

Until the next round of shifts were due and almost no one showed up.

"Did everybody forget they were meant to be volunteering?" The president angrily threw her hands up in the air, then grabbed her phone, making a few calls.

Hyerim stood around awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

"Hyerim, I'm so sorry, is it possible if you could just help out a little bit more? I don't know why everyone isn't here, and we're really struggling with only two waitresses..." the president asked, clasping her hands together.

One thing about Hyerim was that she was a people pleaser and sort of a pushover. So, finding it hard to say no, she reluctantly nodded, and in return was showered with hugs and compliments.

So she got to work again, putting on her apron and fetching her notepad. This time around, it was significantly busier, with much less staff, and more students showing up the later it got.

Hyerim was in the midst of writing down an order for three students when she heard the president speak.

"Oh, thank you Haechan-ah, you're an angel!"

She almost dropped her pen, whipping around to see Haechan donning an apron and taking a notepad and pen as well.

Hyerim must've done something extremely wrong in her past life for the universe to be cursing at her like this. Hurriedly, she finished writing down the order, dashing to the kitchen to tape down the order along with the multiple others, and ran to the president, yanking off her apron in the process.

"Hey, Jinah, I think I'll get going for the night, I have some friends that-"

"Going so fast?"

Turning her head to the right, she saw the purple haired boy standing there with a benign smile.

"Don't you have orders to take?" she huffed.

"Jinah, don't listen to her. She'll be very happy to help out for the night." And with a grasp of her shoulders, he steered her away from the president.

Once they were a little bit away, Hyerim shrugged Haechan's hands off her shoulders. "And what the fuck do you think you're doing? Look, I don't know what your ulterior motives are, but just stay away from me and my peaceful university life." She donned the apron again, and crossed her arms angrily, glaring at him.

"I have no ulterior motives," he replied simply, walking behind her to help tie her apron. The brush of his fingertips against her clothed waist sent tingles up her spine, though she didn't like to admit it.

"I have no ulterior motives," he repeated when he was done, walking back to face her. "I just missed you, that's all. And I just wanted to check in, say hi, see how you're doing. Is that so wrong?"

"We haven't spoken in a year and a half," Hyerim pointed out bluntly.

"All the reason more for me to want to check up on you. Now, come on. Don't wanna keep the customers waiting!" He pranced off in his stupid little apron with his stupid little notepad and pen, heading straight to a table of girls that were eye-fucking him the entire time. He gave them his signature smile and cheery greeting, and they all melted into a puddle.

Disgusting.

The rest of the night went pretty smoothly. Haechan and Hyerim managed to work civilly, with no disagreements or fights. They were an efficient pair, working until the end of the festival. Hyerim didn't even realise how long she had spent at the stall until the president gathered them, and told them that they were free to watch the fireworks while the seniors cleaned and packed up the stall.

"Let's go watch the fireworks."

Scoffing, she turned to the boy next to her with a wide smile on his face. "With you? You have to be kidding me." She turned back around to get her stuff.

"Won't it be lonely watching fireworks by yourself? Come on," he whined, tugging on her sleeve lightly. "I won't say anything, I promise, I'll just keep you company." He mimed zipping up his mouth.

Hyerim hummed ambiguously, not giving him an answer, taking her stuff and leaving. He trailed after her like a lost puppy anyway, occasionally dapping up someone or shouting a greeting, but he tried to stay hot on her heels.

"No, this isn't a good spot." Haechan yanked Hyerim up from her seat, and she yelped when he began dragging her away from the plaza.

"Unhand me, you gremlin." 

"You'll thank me when you see the fireworks from this spot."

Hyerim grumbled, plopping down on the grass next to Haechan as the speakers crackled, a student speaking into them, notifying that the fireworks were starting in one minute.

"The sky is nice today," Haechan observed.

Hyerim didn't respond, but also observed the sky. It was a clear night, and the fact that the university was located a distance away from the city centre meant that they were able to see the stars clearer. It was a nice sky.

"Alright students, countdown from ten! Ten, nine, eight, seven..." 

The crowd could be heard shouting along with the MC.

"Three, two, one!"

And the sky exploded, first with one single firework shooting up into the sky, then exploding into a burst of red, then the others followed, lighting up the overhead. Haechan made noises of amazement, and Hyerim simply hugged her legs, enjoying the show.

She slightly flinched at a particularly loud firework.

"Hold my hand if it gets scary," Haechan called over the bangs of the fireworks, scooting closer to her on the grass, but Hyerim just scoffed, giving him a look before focusing back to the fireworks.

But they stayed like that all throughout the show, shoulders touching slightly, breaths in sync, one person's gaze up towards the night sky and the other's to the person beside them.

korea uni is in fact not far from the city centre but just pretend it is ok for the sake of the plotline

also sorry that this is so messy my brain is kinda a mess rn